If you say: If it were said, 'Did you advise or did you not advise?', it would be shorter. The meaning is the same. I say: The meaning is not the same, and there is a difference between them, because what is meant is: It is the same for us whether you performed this act of advising or whether you were not originally one of its people and practitioners. This is more eloquent in showing their little regard for your advising than saying: 'Or did you not advise?' Those who read: 'the creation of the ancients' with an open vowel, its meaning is: What you have brought is the fabrication of the ancients and their conjectures, as they said: 'Legends of the ancients.' Or 'We did not create this except as the creation of the past generations; we live as they lived and die as they died, and there is no resurrection or reckoning.' And those who read: 'creation' with two dashes or with one, its meaning is: What is this that we are upon from the religion except the creation of the ancients and their customs? They used to adhere to it and believe in it, and we are following them. Or what is this that we are upon from life and death, the resurrection, which people have always been upon since ancient times? Or what is this that you have brought of lies except the custom of the ancients? They used to fabricate similar things and write them down.